14 DAY TRIAL // We reported on the fact that the oldest long-term supported kernel branch, Linux 2.6.32, was about to reach its end of life in February, as kernel developer Willy Tarreau said it would happen in an announcement made at the end of January 2016.
At that point in time, Mr. Tarreau not only announced the release of the Linux kernel 2.6.32.70 maintenance build but he also stated that there might be another point release in a few weeks if important things needed to be fixed.
Well, it took a little bit longer than two weeks, and on March 12, 2016, he published details about the last maintenance release in the series, Linux kernel 2.6.32.71 LTS, along with the official end-of-life announcement.
"I've just released Linux 2.6.32.71. This is the very last 2.6.32 release, no other release is planned after this one. In theory there is no reason to deploy this release unless you're still in the process of validating a new kernel," Willy Tarreau said in the announcement.
Linux 2.6.32 users are urged to upgrade to the Linux 3.2 branch
As noted by Mr. Tarreau above, if you're using Linux kernel 2.6.32.70 LTS or a previous version on your operating system, there's no need to update to the Linux kernel 2.6.32.71 LTS point release, unless you are in the process of validating a new kernel.
Instead, it is recommended that you upgrade your system to a kernel from the long-term supported Linux 3.2 series as soon as possible. "Kernel 3.2 is an excellent upgrade which still has more than two extra years to live," said Willy Tarreau in the release announcement for Linux 2.6.32.71.
The Linux kernel 2.6.32.71 LTS release is a small one, consisting of multiple sound enhancements, improvements to the UDF and OCFS2 filesystems, along with fixes for the x86 and SPARC hardware architectures, as well as updated drivers, in particular for things like ATA, InfiniBand, PCI, SCSI, and USB.
Linux 2.6 first came out in December 2003, and the first long-term release, Linux 2.6.16, was declared in March 2006. Linux kernel 2.6.32.71 LTS is now available for download either from Softpedia or the kernel.org website, where it is currently marked as [EOL]. In the next few weeks, it will be completely removed from the kernel archives.